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If you’ve been to a Bed, Bath and Beyond store, you’ve seen them: the shelves and shelves of perfectly folded towels, stacked up to the ceiling. They look nice, and that’s an awful lot of towels, isn’t it? No. It isn’t. Photos exposing the towel towers as the shams they are frequently make the rounds on social media sites, blowing everyone’s minds.

The photo circulating last week is brighter, clearer, and really illustrates how such a scheme would work.

No one sharing these pictures answers the important question: are these photos themselves shams? Surely no one would ever post a misleading or dishonest picture on the Internet. We wanted to find out the truth, so we employed the advanced investigative technique of e-mailing the chain’s PR people. Guess what? It’s true.

Their lovely Public Relations manager wrote to us:

Busted! Yes, our little “secret” has been discovered (again). We do use a foam mold to keep our towel displays looking neat and clean for our customers.

Once you stop to think about it, it’s the illusion that makes no sense. If hundreds of towels were really stacked that high in every store, eventually the towels would get creased and dusty and be generally not-sellable. No shopper wants to look up and see stacks of gross, dusty towels. This method lets the real excess towels hang out in the warehouse, safe and clean. Commenters online note that ex-competitor Linens ‘N’ Things did the same exact thing.

We’re relieved and impressed at the ingenuity. Now, if you don’t mind, the entire editorial team is going to the store to get some foam and a half-dozen towels to redecorate Meg’s bathroom.